A fruit galette is the workhorse of the sweet kitchen. Freeing yourself from the confines of a pie plate is so liberating. Somehow, no matter how a galette slumps, breaks, or browns, it’s always beautiful. Glory lies in irregularity. Unlike a deep fruit pie, which tends to harbor too much liquid, galettes always leak a little bit. Rest easy. That’s a good thing! It seems to me that exactly the right amount of liquid creeps out so that what’s left inside is a nicely thickened fruit filling with sweet, concentrated flavor, and a crisp bottom crust. The secret is to remove it from the parchment paper while it’s still warm and the leaked juices haven’t solidified. A bonus is that galettes cool much faster than pies. You are closer to dessert bliss than you think.
Panna cotta is a wonderfully light dessert to enjoy in the heat of summer. When you pair the smooth creamy créme fraîche pannacotta with Wild Little Thing Sour Ale strawberries, black peppercorn crumble and a hint of lemon zest it creates a delightfully complex flavor profile that’s not too sweet and slightly sour.
I was in Durango at a small restaurant in which they served a dish of rajas con crema as a condiment with other assorted salsas and chiles en escabeche. I tasted it and was so completely taken, I kept asking them to bring me more. It was creamy and spicy, with a tiny bit of sweetness from the charred chiles and the onion. The poblanos here in the northern states seem to be hotter than those in the US, so it does read a little more like a hot condiment, but I love the extra heat and am crazy for these rajas as a taco filling or as a side dish for grilled meat or fish. But honestly, I could eat this right out of the skillet wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. This to me is pure comfort food.
If we all ate fika, I think the world would be a much better place. Fika is a Scandinavian ritual, like afternoon tea. Traditionally, a range of buns are served that you share with your neighbours, people you work with or friends (imaginary or otherwise). It’s such a great custom and even the mighty Volvo plant in Sweden stops for fika every day. What follows here are the recipes for three different flavour buns, all made from the same dough, but with different fillings (butters) and glazes. We recommend the Milky Way glaze with the cinnamon bun, the coffee glaze with the cardamom and orange bun and the orange glaze with the Nutella bun, but it’s totally up to you. We’ve given quantities for the butter and glaze recipes, but to be honest, you can adjust them depending on whether you want a subtle hint of flavour or a big mouthful, so don’t feel tied down to the measurements.
It’s all right there for you in the title. Sweet shrimp is sautéed until just cooked through, and fregola (a tiny toasted pasta from Sardinia) is added to the pot to toast in the melted anchovy butter and spices with some cherry tomatoes. I love Calabrian chiles packed in oil and use them here for some punchy heat, but if red pepper flakes are within closer reach feel free to use them instead. Once the fregola finishes cooking, return the shrimp to the pot to warm them through and serve straight from the pan. Serve with many bottles of chilled red wine.
The greatest failure when making potato salad is overcooking the spuds—creamy mashed pota-toes is a no-go for any potato salad recipe. You want a waxy variety like fingerlings, Yukon Golds, or red potatoes; these varieties will keep their shape and texture when cooked right. Bobby Seale, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, said it well in his 1988 cookbook Barbeque’n with Bobby, where he wrote under a recipe titled “Hunky Crunchy Potato Salad” that his mother’s potato salad was a “tasty quasi-mashed potato salad.” My pro tip is to season the potatoes while they are warm. Begin your training to be a queen.
So, tart strawberries and sweet cream is a yummy- sounding combo, am I right? And when the strawberries are of the freeze- dried variety, and the “cream” is white chocolate, and a buttery, blondie- type bar cookie is the vehicle that brings them together, yes: something delectable is, indeed, happening. Here, I am going to go completely off brand and suggest that an actual bar of white chocolate, chopped, works better than chips, as the chopped chocolate gets a tad meltier when baked. But they both work and give you strawberry-and-cream vibes in the most heavenly of ways possible.
This recipe was born one quiet, rainy Saturday afternoon when I couldn’t work out if I wanted brownies or cookies. With the self-assurance of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting their flag on the moon, I crowned a tin of brownies with a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, and haven’t felt bad about being indecisive since. If you don’t want to use raw egg in the cookie dough, replace it with 3 tablespoons of whole milk. You’ll need 40g less flour.
These incredibly easy cookie bars use cornflour (cornstarch) to make a wonderfully tender shortbread-style bar that is topped with a lime curd: impressive yet simple. While I would always encourage you to use homemade lime curd for optimal flavour, I will look the other way if you want to use a shop-bought version.